Andrew Ross: The Exorcist and the Machines

100 Notes, 100 Thoughts: Documenta Series 044

Cultural critic Andrew Ross questions the price we have to pay for the never-ending increase in efficiency and productivity and analyzes correlations between self-exploitation in the western economic system and the exploitation of the human workforce in Asia. Many freelance and creative producers spend all their waking hours on their laptops, which allows them to work anytime and anywhere, but which often leads to misconceptions about the advantages of freelance employment. Ross provides an example of the harsh labor conditions of the manufacturers of these machines in an investigation into the largest private employer in China, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, where a series of suicides occurred among the mostly adolescent workers.

Andrew Ross: The Exorcist and the Machines100 Notes, 100 Thoughts: Documenta Series 044

Published by Hatje Cantz.

Cultural critic Andrew Ross questions the price we have to pay for the never-ending increase in efficiency and productivity and analyzes correlations between self-exploitation in the western economic system and the exploitation of the human workforce in Asia. Many freelance and creative producers spend all their waking hours on their laptops, which allows them to work anytime and anywhere, but which often leads to misconceptions about the advantages of freelance employment. Ross provides an example of the harsh labor conditions of the manufacturers of these machines in an investigation into the largest private employer in China, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, where a series of suicides occurred among the mostly adolescent workers.